A. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to furnace walls and more particularly to an antisliding support bar for furnace wall constructions, which is anchored into a fiber insulation module in order to avoid sliding thereof in spite of temperature changes.
B. Description of the Related Art.
There are well known furnace wall constructions constituted by fiber insulation modules.
Generally, the furnace wall constructions such as those used in shuttle kilns, comprises several insulation modules made from fiber mats retained to a mesh by anchoring means, which in turn is attached to a support structure.
Usually the anchoring means comprises a support bar placed between the fiber insulation modules, which is attached to the mesh by twisted wires or a nut-screw assembly passing through the fiber modules.
A furnace wall construction of the above referred characteristics is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,621 of Miller, which comprises an expanded sheet metal member and first and second interleaved U-Shaped mats of ceramic fiber insulation material supported thereon. The first ones of the U-shaped mats have the closed ends thereof abutting the corresponding expanded sheet metal member with the legs of each mat extending inwardly of the chamber, and the second ones of the mats have their closed ends facing inwardly of the chamber with the legs of each mat receiving the adjacent legs of an adjacent pair of the first mats therebetween, whereby the closed ends of the second mats extend across the inner ends of the adjacent legs of the first mats. The interleaved mats of insulating material are attached to the corresponding expanded sheet metal member by anchoring means comprising metal rods extending between the legs of the first mats adjacent the closed ends thereof and wire ties fastening the rods to the expanded sheet metal member.
The main disadvantage of the above referred furnace wall, is that the metal rods of the anchoring means have a tendency to slide along the legs of the mats due to the constant heating and cooling, producing a deformation of the anchoring means and furnace walls, mainly because of the continuous dilates and contractions of the metals caused by the temperature changes and consequently, in some cases, the metal rods perforate the external walls of the furnace, damaging the furnace and producing heat loses.
Another furnace wall construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,660 of Simko, which discloses: a lightweight ladle cover employing ceramic fiber mats in modules. The modules are formed by having the generally rectilinear mat folded into five adjacent sections, the first of which depends vertically toward the "hot" side of the cover but is sandwiched between the second, third and fourth sections which form a vertical, horizontal ("hot" side) and vertical U-shape configuration about the first section. The last section is folded to extend horizontally to overlay part of the next module. The modules are anchored to an expanded metal wall at the "cold" side of the cover by an anchoring system which employs flat bars having spaced apart threaded studs welded to one flat side of the bar.
Although the anchoring means of the above disclosed furnace wall overcome the above disclosed disadvantages of the sliding anchoring studs disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,621 of Miller, the assembling of the above anchoring system is more complicated because it is necessary to weld the threaded studs to the flat bars, which needs a lot of workmanship and time and create the necessity of acquiring a welding equipment of high energy consumption. Besides, the threaded stud-nut assembly require constants adjustments due to its natural tendency to loosen.
Considering the above referred problems, it was developed an anti-sliding support bar for supporting the fiber insulation modules of a furnace wall construction, having anti-sliding means which overcomes the tendency of the metal rod to slide along the legs of the mats due to the constant heating and cooling and avoids the necessity of including additional elements such as nut-screw assembly welded to the bar.
The anti-sliding bar for furnace wall constructions of the type comprising an open support structure wall and mat means of fibrous insulating material, including U, S or C shaped sections interleaved to each other; anchoring means between the interleaved U-shape sections, and tying means passing through the mat means, to hold the anchoring means attaching the mat means to the open support structure wall; the anti-sliding bar comprises: a rod supporting the mats, extending horizontally between the U, S or C shaped sections, having anti-sliding means, fastening tying means for supporting the bar to the mesh means.